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IPv4 / IPv6: The Bottom Line

The IANA IPv4 Address Free Pool is now Depleted

At a ceremony held on 3 February, 2011 the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) allocated the remaining last five /8s of IPv4 address space to the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) in accordance with the Global Policy for the Allocation of the Remaining IPv4 Address Space. With this action, the free pool of available IPv4 addresses is now fully depleted. To read the full text of this announcement please go to:

To keep the community informed of the status of the ARIN's IPv4 address pool, we are now publishing a daily report of our IPv4 inventory of available addresses on our home page, www.arin.net.

ARIN still has a pool of IPv4 address space, and we will continue to make allocations in accordance with the policies documented in the Number Resource Policy Manual. The depletion of the IANA IPv4 free pool does have a direct impact on a number of policies. To review these specific impacts and learn more about how IANA IPv4 free pool depletion affects ARIN Customers, please see: https://www.arin.net/resources/request/ipv4_depletion.html

ARIN's services and its own network are dual-stacked with IPv4 and IPv6. For details, please see our Public-facing Services Page. ARIN also presented a case study on its efforts conceringing IPv6 at ARIN XXV, and both an archive of the slides and video from that presentation are available [Video: Part 1; Part 2].

What Can You Do?

Need help explaining why your organization must adopt IPv6? ARIN has created a downloadable slide deck that describes the depletion of the IPv4 resource and the need to adopt IPv6. Each slide also includes presentation notes with more detailed information. The slide deck is available in both PowerPoint and Acrobat formats.

Use the slide deck in whole, or select individual slides to supplement your own presentations. ARIN provides the slide deck as an open file for ease of use, but requests you not alter the content of the slides. The slide deck is updated periodically to reflect current statistics.

NEW:Deploying IPv6 multimedia presentation is available for download. This Flash-based presentation can be used in conjunction with the IPv4 Depletion and IPv6 Adoption Community Use Slide Deck or presented independently.

ARIN hosts an ARIN IPv6 Wiki to facilitate discussion and information sharing on IPv6 topics and issues. Content is generated and maintained by the Internet community to provide an opportunity to collaborate on IPv6 subject matter. Anything posted to this website must relate to IPv6 issues and topics generally considered to be current and relevant. The website is mainly intended for those in the ARIN region, however content related to experiences outside the ARIN region are also encouraged.

Did You Know?

ARIN has been allocating IPv6 addresses since 1999 and has been actively advocating the need for organizations to deploy IPv6. Some of these actions include: